Reinhard,
> the .enc files are in fonts/enc/dvips/arev in TL2005 as well as on
> CTAN. Is this wrong?
Hmmm...I guess not for TL2005 as it's already configured to look there:
% kpsewhich -progname=dvips arevoms.enc
/mnt/tmp/texmf-dist/fonts/enc/dvips/arev/arevoms.enc
(This was a problem for an old teTeX distribution I also use.)
-- Scott